Timothée Chalamet has been involved in a number of award-worthy projects over the past couple of years, including last year’s A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two. He’s not slowing down, either, with Marty Supreme hitting the 2025 movie calendar this month and already generating Oscar buzz for its lead actor. Critics have seen the upcoming A24 film, and they’re definitely fanning those flames.
Marty Supreme stars Timothée Chalamet as table tennis player Marty Mauser in a sports dramedy from Josh Safdie that’s loosely based on real-life champion Marty Reisman. Gwyneth Paltrow is returning to the big screen for the first time since Avengers: Endgame, and for a sports movie about ping pong, the trailer looks pretty intense. It seems like David Ehrlich of IndieWire would cosign this sentiment, as he calls Chalamet’s performance “legendary” in an “agonizing” epic about the true cost of greatness. He gives it an A, writing:
The ecstatic tension at the heart of the world-beating Marty Supreme, in which Chalamet makes one of the most colossal movie performances of the 21st century seem as natural as a lay-up, is that it encourages modern Hollywood’s ultimate striver to sell his heart out, just so it can interrogate why anyone would bother trying so hard. It challenges — and rewards — his outspoken pursuit of greatness by casting him as a character who’s pathologically driven by the same thing.
David Rooney of THR describes what Timothée Chalamet does in Marty Supreme as “Duracell Bunny physicality” and says the movie as a whole “is a wonder.” It strikes the critic as funny that this is Josh Safdie’s first feature since 2008 without his brother Benny, because, as Rooney puts it:
Marty Supreme turns out, paradoxically, to be his most Safdian movie to date. Propelled by a hot-wired Timothée Chalamet as a cocky operator aiming for global table tennis glory, this genre-defying original is an exhilarating sports comedy, a scrappy character study, a thrumming evocation of early ‘50s New York City — plus a reimagining of all those things.
Michael Calabro of IGN rates it an “Amazing” 9 out of 10, saying that Marty Supreme is equal parts fun and stressful. The film combines Josh Safdie’s chaotic directing style with Timothée Chalamet’s charisma to make a movie that is, “without a doubt, one of the year’s best films.” Calabro continues:
Marty Supreme is an amazing first solo directing credit for Josh Safdie that continues to build on the chaotic vibe that he and his brother have been honing since Heaven Knows What. If you’re a fan of previous Safdie brothers efforts, you won’t be disappointed. But thanks to a career-defining performance from Timothée Chalamet as the charismatic Marty Mauser, Marty Supreme will appeal to more than just the film and sports bros.
Pete Hammond of Deadline praises all of the efforts behind the scenes of Marty Supreme, including production design, the period costuming and the musical score in creating what is so much more than a sports biopic. Of course, he also lauds the lead actor, comparing his talents to Adam Sandler’s in Uncut Gems. Hammond writes:
With the perfect casting of Timothée Chalamet as its title star, you go along for this wild ride of a young man in a hurry, but sometimes his own worst enemy. Chalamet is, as you might expect, just sensational in the role, every bit as commanding as Adam Sandler was in another kinetic deep NYC film of Safdie’s (done with brother Benny), 2019’s similarly manic – but brilliant – Uncut Gems... Marty Supreme is unmistakably the work of the same filmmaker who seems drawn to the fringe of New Yorkers living out a dream on the precipice of a nightmare.
Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek seems to be the rare outlier, as the critic pushes back against the notion that audiences are supposed to relish Marty’s passion despite how many people he has to steamroll to get to greatness. Such an idea can be fun, but this movie is as “hollow as a ping pong ball,” Zacharek says, all the way up to the main character’s unrealistic redemption. The critic says:
Marty Supreme is the kind of movie that’s often approvingly characterized as a ‘fun ride’; we’ve moved long past the era when movies could just be movies. It’s about as brash and peripatetic as Safdie’s last feature, 2019’s Uncut Gems, but its undertones are nastier, and it’s somehow even more exhausting. Marty is brazenly selfish, and the worse he behaves, the more we’re urged to applaud him. He’s supposed to be a complex character, but maybe he’s just an unbearable one.
Timothée Chalamet put in a lot of preparation for this role, and it seems like in the eyes of most critics, it’s paying off in spades. We’ll have to see what happens when Marty Supreme hits theaters on December 25 and if we’ll see this title or Chalamet’s name on any ballots come awards season.
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